Samaha was 'only transporting explosive devices'

Lebanon's former Information Minister Michel Samaha Lebanon's former Information Minister and MP Michel Samaha is set to be brought to a second session of judicial investigation next Thursday, after he attended the first session Monday before a military judge. Samaha was formally charged by Lebanon's Military Tribunal of being part of a terror plot aimed at carrying out assassination operations and erupting sectarian strife in the country.
General Ali Mamlouk, chief of the Syrian National Security Bureau and a Syrian officer identified as Brigadier General Adnan, were also accused of being part of the conspiracy.
Leaked information said that the first session of the military investigation into the probe has seen Samaha's lawyers focusing on reducing the former minister's charge from being a participant in the plot to "only transporting explosive devices."
"This can only be a joke. He has confessed that he smuggled and stored 120kg of explosives not biscuits!" A security source told Arabstoday.
During police interrogation, Samaha, a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, was reported to have confessed to his role in transporting explosives in his car from Syria to Lebanon as part of the terror plot.
The source played down reports that Samaha had recanted his confessions. "The charges against him are documented with compelling evidence, including incriminating video footage, about his role in transporting explosives and assigning people to use these explosives against targets in specific areas, especially in the north.” The source added.
In his confessions before the Internal Security Forces' Information Branch, Samaha said Assad had desired to carry out bomb attacks in north Lebanon, particularly Tripoli and Akkar.
It was reported too that Samaha's lawyers were trying to push for a theory that Samaha has fallen into a trap designed by the probe's informer identified as Milad Kfouri. The reports added that defence attorneys have asked to interrogate Kfouri.
"He can't be interrogated because he is an informer not a witness," Arabstoday's security source said.
"He has the privilege of being kept anonymous to ensure his safety. He was not even referred to in the police investigations," the source added.
When asked about the calling  of the two Syrian suspects to investigation by the Lebanese authorities, judicial sources said to Arabstoday that "this issue is subject to the relative international bilateral agreements, and it has to be regulated by the justice ministries of both Lebanon and Syria."
"The procedures taken by Lebanon's judiciary in that regard will be announced to the public. Nothing will be done under the hood," the sources said.